ANOTHER LOON SPEAKS – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:   I am sickened when I see American officeholders turn their backs on national defense.  The left wing of the Democratic Party is the prime example, although, I'm sorry to say, there is a growing return to isolationism among some Republicans.

The latest example comes from that great pillar of national security, Senator Patrick Leahy of the People's Republic of Vermont.  From The Hill:

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) got his wish on a new potential East Coast missile defense site: If it’s built, it won’t be in Vermont.

The Pentagon announced Friday that bases in four states — Ohio, Michigan, New York and Maine —would receive environmental reviews for possible construction of a third U.S. missile site on the East Coast.

The Pentagon selected the final four sites for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) out of an initial list of five in September, eliminating only Camp Ethan Allen Training Site in Vermont.
The four sites that were selected will undergo an environmental analysis that will take two years, a step that was mandated by Congress in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

After the Pentagon released the list of five possible locations in September 2013, Leahy issued a statement saying he didn’t want the interceptors housed in Vermont.

“I’ve always felt that the multiple billions spent on missile defense are a monumental waste of money, on technologically challenged systems, and I am emphatically against putting one of these sites in Vermont,” Leahy wrote in a letter to the Missile Defense Agency.

COMMENT:  We note that Vermont is the only state that has a self-described socialist, Bernie Sanders, in the U.S. Senate. 

Leahy has always been a bit lofty and above us all.  His comments are not entirely shocking.  They remind me of the disgraceful episode that took place in New York City in the 1980s.  The U.S. Navy offered to designate New York as a home port, meaning new facilities would be built and a certain number of ships would make New York their permanent base.  The leftist New York City Council turned down the offer.  As usual with the left, a deceptive reason was given – that some of the ships might be carrying nuclear weapons.  Of course, ships that carried nuclear weapons visited New York all the time.  The real reason was the anti-military tone of the City Council.  (It is even more leftist today.)  The rejection so revolted the legendary Mayor Ed Koch that he asked out loud whether New Yorkers still considered their city part of the United States.  I don't think he got an answer.

Many years later, San Francisco turned down an offer to have the battleship USS Iowa permanently docked in the city as a museum.  Too militaristic said the city fathers and mothers.  Iowa has found a home elsewhere. and San Francisco is the poorer.

February 1, 2014